[Skylab]

Quote:

Originally Posted by recstar24 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Oooh Rob before I forget...your son actually won something from the last raffle, a pair of Koss KDX Iem's I believe. They look nice! We will have to find some way for you to get them

LOL! He was so geeked about the raffle - won after we left! I'll PM ya, thanks!

 

[-=Germania=-]

Audiotailor Jade - good, but not fantastic I expected a lot more for its praise. Maybe different tubes and some parts changeouts...

HF2's - Like them better than many Grado's. In fact, these may just be on my short list.

Elekit Amp: NICE!!!!!! A very viable alternative to the Bottlehead as a Tube Amp kit. Sweet, yet detailed and clean. Very nice balance IMO.

Balanced HD800's - only moderaly better than single ended version IMO.

Edition 8 - I liked these! Considering I didn't like the Ed9, wasn't expecting much. Probably the best set modern closed cans outside of the DX1000. Not too bassy and has that detail I felt the Ed9 was missing. Decent treble and the focus on these seems to be in the lower mids, not bad IMO.

Kenwood KH-1000 - was hoping for more here. Sounded only a bit better than A900's.

AT-AD700 - Very good value/dollar. Just a bit more bass and they would be incredible value.

Thank you Andy for putting together such a fun time. The two I brought to the meet are hooked, especially my little brother (if you can't tell). Some sisters introduce their brothers to horrible habits like drugs, drinking, etc. I make mine broke with audio....

Ray, thanks for the fun at your house later that evening and letting me sleep on your couch for an hour or so. I was bum tired. Very kind indeed.

 

[GLF]

It was a good meet. I got to listen to some stuff I had wanted to get to listen to. It was fun bouncing back and forth between the SR225, HP2 and 650's. I don't think any one of them was the best. Each had a few tracks that they excelled on.

I am looking forward to the November meet!

 

[jvlgato]

I had a great time at this meet. Thanks again, Andy!

GLF’s Bottlehead w/ HD650/Cardas cable sounded very, very good. It was clean, clear, detailed, and not harsh in any way. This is the first time I’ve really liked an HD650. This is also my first experience with a Bottlehead. Very nice system.

I liked skylab’s Jade quite a bit. I listened to HP2, RS2, and DT880’s on this, and enjoyed them all. I don’t know much about this amp, but it sounded clean and detailed and just a bit of warmth in the mids, might enjoyable! I THINK I heard the Elekit – that big flat box that looked DIY? Pretty nice, but didn’t excite me. I kept going back to the Jade.

Ultrasone ed8 – sounded very good! But then I heard how much they cost, and … well, they don’t sound THAT good. I wouldn’t pay that kind of cash for these, but at that moment, I remember enjoying them quite a bit.

Koss electrostats. Very nice! And they were hooked up to an iPod mini. I bet they’d sound awesome on some better sources.

PS Audio’s Perfect Wave and transport, whatever it’s called. Wow! Fantastic! I wish I could get these. If only I had six grand to spend! Seriously, I think it’s the best sounding digital I’ve heard. Tonight I’ll be dreaming of listening to this piece through a pair of HP2’s. Unsure what the amp would be though.

I heard the HD800 and was, well, a little disappointed. Yes, it sounded good, it was very detailed, it was comfortable, the mids were very full; agree on all that stuff. But, I’m with skylab on the highs – a bit too bright and harsh for me. I found myself thinking about all the details and not really enjoying the music. I switched over to the Beyer DT880 and Grado RS2 on the same systems (Ray’s Meridian via RSA B52 and skylab’s iMod via Jade), and had that happy, warm, breathless feeling which I didn’t get with the HD800. For me, it was among the many very good cans I’ve heard that just didn’t do it for me. How can one explain love?

Speaking of love - Ryan, I didn’t just ‘enjoy’ your HP2s, I am head over heels in love with them. This was my first chance to hear any HP1000 and I think it’s my favorite headphones right now. I did enjoy hearing about the history and politics of Grado. It’s only too bad that I can’t just pick up a pair whenever I want!

HF2 – very , very nice! Great mids, strong bass, it’s got the house sound. I don’t believe I’ll choose this over my RS1’s, but I did like it very much, and for the price, it’s tough to beat! Did xnothingpoetic mean these HF2’s when he mentioned the
‘The new Grado's HP1000's (or whatever. . . can't remember the model #)’ that had the overly prominent vocals that struck a nerve after a while? I’m not aware of any other new Grado’s, and the HP1000 is pretty darn neutral, and definitely not new! I think most Grado have pretty prominent vocals, but that’s what I like about them. I could see how you could get sick of that if it’s not your cup of tea, though.

Ray, thanks for the ‘za. What a great display you set up! I would otherwise never have a chance to listen to so many pieces of high end stuff. I need to get to one of your after meet parties some time. I’ve got to hear those Meadowlarks with the vinyl and all tubed power!

Ryan and Rob, thanks for the kinds words. You two have been instrumental in making my several months in head-fi so enjoyable and informative. Go ‘Cats!

Ryan, I actually did a search for some HP1000’s for sale to see if I’d get lucky, and all that came up was you looking to buy a pair of HP1000’s over and over and over again! Don’t give these up bro’!


-=Littlebrother=- Nice guy, budding audiophile, great to meet you!

-=boyfriend=- Good guy, fellow alum/fellow techie, keep him!

Stacey, cool soldering display. Too bad I don’t have an iPod any more. I’d have taken you up on the LOD’s!

Son of Samuels : Fun, laid back, great helper to Dad. Great to meet you!

Audioaddict - great system, cool tubes, thanks for the cookies (my lunch!), love your nuts!

Ok. It’s past midnight … again. I’ve gotta go to bed. Thanks for a great time, everyone!

 

[andyk]

Jvlgato, Now I know why you kept snatching my RS-2's to "listen around": You're a Grado man....lol. One minute they were there, the next minute they were on John's head across the room. Tee Hee.

Thanks for coming!

-Andy

 

[Keithpgdrb]

once again, Andy, thank you to you, your wife, and your daughter, who I met briefly during setup.

Lots of great gear at the meet. Overall, one thing kept crawling into my head throughout the whole day. It could be that I have been listening to my stax almost exclusively for a while, but I found most of the super high end cans fairly underwhelming. now I'm not saying that they didnt sound good, because they did. But I found the bass fairly bloated on the senn 800, the ed 8, and even the R10. I was particularly surprised with the r10, because I have heard it before and loved it. So, I think I'm going to write this off as my ear just being tuned to my stax bass. or it could have been the amps that were pushing them.

BUT... having said that, and made that conclusion, let us discuss the cans at the meet I loved. The can that caught me off guard and became my favorite of the meet was the Beyer dt880 600ohm. I've been waiting to hear this can, and I cant think of a better setup to audition on then one that Rob (skylab) has put together. This thing really blew me away. the bass was clear, rich and full, but not "bloated". Highs were sparkling all over the place. Lots of fun to listen to. Rob had clearly matched it with the right amp for the meet. I just kept going back. I also realized that I love Imogen Heap. bought the album yesterday.

Of course I loved the he90. has that signature I must like. no bloated bass, but has impact. collectors item really though, I'd never own one.

I was also very excited to get to hear the koss electrostatic cans. I've read a lot about them, and they did not disappoint. These cans are SUPER open like the stax cans, so it was difficult to really get to hear the fine details, but I thought they delivered on detail, warmth, and a bit more bass slam then my sr-lambdas. have to go back to back though to verify that. great sounding cans, although the independent L/R volume control is stupid.

I really enjoyed the senn600 out of the.. was it heed? creek? it was next to the little dot III. I felt it really opened the 600 up. validated for me again that I like the 600 better then the 650. always a surprise. I wish someone would have brought a denon 2000. I would have loved to compare that to some of the offerings at the meet.

lastly, I am still in the camp that the RE0 is one of the finest IEMs available. I put it above the RE3, only because with the new RE design, I could not get a good fit, no matter how many tips I tried. really bummed me out. but.. saved me some money I suppose in the long run. lol. I also learned that my RE0's are Incredible when amped. I tested this out on some of Rays portable amp offerings, and it is true. I dont like it, but its true. everything just opened up and got even clearer.
Recstar24, good seeing you again. If I had known ahead of time that you had the shure IEM's I would have asked you to bring them. havent been able to do a back to back. I know they are Fine IEMs.

Thank you to all the vendors who came and represented. thank you Koss for bringing such a beautiful display. really added some class to the event. thank you andy for putting it all together. cant wait for the next one.

Lastly, for real this time.. A bit of advice... If you listen to someones rig, and your messing with the eq and loudness, TURN THE VOLUME DOWN BEFORE YOU WALK AWAY!!!!

 

[Skylab]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jvlgato /img/forum/go_quote.gif I liked skylab’s Jade quite a bit. I listened to HP2, RS2, and DT880’s on this, and enjoyed them all. I don’t know much about this amp, but it sounded clean and detailed and just a bit of warmth in the mids, might enjoyable! I THINK I heard the Elekit – that big flat box that looked DIY? Pretty nice, but didn’t excite me. I kept going back to the Jade.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keithpgdrb /img/forum/go_quote.gif The can that caught me off guard and became my favorite of the meet was the Beyer dt880 600ohm. I've been waiting to hear this can, and I cant think of a better setup to audition on then one that Rob (skylab) has put together. This thing really blew me away. the bass was clear, rich and full, but not "bloated". Highs were sparkling all over the place. Lots of fun to listen to. Rob had clearly matched it with the right amp for the meet. I just kept going back. I also realized that I love Imogen Heap. bought the album yesterday.

Ahhhh...yes...the Beyer DT880/600 + the Audiotailor Jade - is it possible to imagine that you can get sound that good for $700 for both amp and headphone??? It's astounding. The quality of music that those two make together is really quite something.

And yessiree, Imogen Heap is the BOMB, and that album is awesome.

Glad you dudes dug it!

 

[tigon_ridge]

Quote:

Originally Posted by recstar24 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Tigon ridge - next time, maybe post in the meet thread asking if anyone is bringing "hi end" IEM's or if anyone has any to bring them. Sometimes at meets people don't bring IEM's because of lack of interest and or issue with tips. I would have loved to have brought my shure se530's but deemed it not necessary to bring them, and I could have easily gotten some other shures, westones, or ultimate ears for people to check out if I had read there was interest.

Yes, good idea. Bums me that I didn't think of that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by recstar24 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Andy's wife was by the window the whole entire time, and all you had to do was go up to her and say "Hi! I am tigon ridge, fellow headfier - would you be willing to keep an eye on my bike please"? I am sure she would have obliged. If you had talked to Andy maybe he would have let you bring it in somewhere, you have to ask.

I actually was wondering whether or not she was going to enjoy the goodies, like the others. I wouldn't want to keep her on her seat by the window on my account (especially in the case that she did want to listen at some point), that's just weird. Other than that, you have a good point. I wasn't too acquainted with large gears since I was anticipating IEMs almost exclusively before arriving at the meet. In the background of my mind I was probably thinking, "Even if these big equipments sound incredible, I probably wouldn't buy them any time soon, so it's probably not worth it to lose that damn bike while being possessed with great sound."

 

[tigon_ridge]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keithpgdrb /img/forum/go_quote.gif lastly, I am still in the camp that the RE0 is one of the finest IEMs available. I put it above the RE3, only because with the new RE design, I could not get a good fit, no matter how many tips I tried. really bummed me out. but.. saved me some money I suppose in the long run. lol. I also learned that my RE0's are Incredible when amped. I tested this out on some of Rays portable amp offerings, and it is true. I dont like it, but its true. everything just opened up and got even clearer. Recstar24, good seeing you again. If I had known ahead of time that you had the shure IEM's I would have asked you to bring them. havent been able to do a back to back. I know they are Fine IEMs.

Hey, Keith, do you have experience with other IEMs (especially if high-end)? If so, could you compare them to the amped RE0? I'm curious.

 

[-=Germania=-]

John, I absolutely have an iPod! (actually an iPhone)

I also had about 5 LOD's with me on the table. I think that with people shuffling around, they may have fallen into the pile of other things near the soldering station stuff.

If you want to try something out john, just let me know.

 

[jvlgato]

Quote:

Originally Posted by -=Germania=- /img/forum/go_quote.gif John, I absolutely have an iPod! (actually an iPhone) I also had about 5 LOD's with me on the table. I think that with people shuffling around, they may have fallen into the pile of other things near the soldering station stuff. If you want to try something out john, just let me know.

Thanks, Stacey. I probably wasn't very clear. If I owned an iPod, I would have gone ahead and made an LOD under your tutelage. Since I don't own one, I don't have a need for an iPod LOD. Thanks a lot for the offer, though. And it was great to see you again!

 

[jvlgato]

Quote:

Originally Posted by andyk /img/forum/go_quote.gif Jvlgato, Now I know why you kept snatching my RS-2's to "listen around": You're a Grado man....lol. One minute they were there, the next minute they were on John's head across the room. Tee Hee. Thanks for coming! -Andy

Yeah, I guess I am a Grado man. I've really only learned about headphones at all since last fall. But I'm coming to realize that it's true.

Thanks for letting me walk around with your RS2. My RS1 broke last week, right before the meet, I was so mad! I had planned on listening to them on every amp at the meet!

At the time, I didn't even know whose they were; I should have asked around to see who owned them first, but the owner never seemed to be around! Now I know why! Hope I didn't scare you!

Thanks again for a great meet! I can't believe you've never done one before!

 

[tigon_ridge]

That macbook hp out didn't sound so great with the re3. Any reason why? Poor internal amp, or dac? I should have given the heron p3 a try with the hp out, but at the time I didn't really have much hope that laptop + amp might sound great. As I heard it, the mids were 6-7 on a 1-10 scale, and the bass didn't sound very tight at all...maybe a 5. Is this typical quality of a macbook hp out? Maybe my fit wasn't as good as I thought.

 

[-=Germania=-]

Not all laptop sound is equal.

My Acer AspireOne D250 has dolby headphone and is clearly designed to be used primarily with headphones. I can plug in IEMs without hiss and suitable amount of detail (sounds a bit better than iPhone/iPod headphone output). Versus my Dell D630 at work which is aweful. I have found that HP, Acer, Sony, and Asus usually put decent headphone outs that are at least usable.

One of the reasons why the Acer is good is due to the fanless design and the headphone output and HDD being on opposite ends of the Mobo. Very little mechanical or electrical interference.

Your best bet is an external DAC/soundsource.

 

[UncleDavid218]

Quote:

Originally Posted by -=Germania=- /img/forum/go_quote.gif Your best bet is an external DAC/soundsource.

Indeed. Something like the Firestone Fubar II should suffice. I've had mine for a couple of months and am very happy when comparing straight from my MB to my amp versus MB -> DAC -> amp.